from Joseph
Dear Lorraine
I have been fascinated by rubber and macks since my early childhood. My earliest recollections were on occasions when my mother had to stay in hospital. I remember staying on one occasion with a family with a lot of children and seeing a macksheet in an empty cot. I took a liking to it and learnt to reach between the rails and fish it out! I remember toddling about the house with it. I couldn't understand why they kept taking it away from me and giving me a towel or cot blanket instead, which wasn't nearly so satisfying!
About a year later (and I was still only three) I was staying at a residential home for children. I remember being taken out of my bed one morning and placed on a low chair while the attendant went to get some clothes for me. She also stripped the bed down to reveal a macksheet, which I recognised from afar by the eyelet holes which they always had round the border. I remember going over to check if it smelt like rubber too!
When I was 4 I remember one day my Mum called in at a ladies' clothes shop and bought herself a new mack. It was a blue one, mainly single thickness material with the rubbering on the inside. As an afterthought she asked for a similar little girls' mack for me. Why a girl's mack when I was a little boy? The assistant pointed out that they did stock little boys' macks, one of which was bought for me. It looked to me just like one of the little girls' macks. I learnt later the difference was something to do with which side the buttons were on. I enjoyed feeling the smooth cool rubber on the backs of my hands when I slid my arms into the sleeves or my hands into my pockets. And I liked the smell and the rustle.
When I went to university, I couldn't get into a hall of residence. In those days you went into digs. My landlady's daughter was about 10 years older than me, but she had a nice red mack. I secretly tried it on a few times, next to my skin! It was a wonderful sensation!
10 years ago I ordered myself a rubber mack to my specifications, yes, with buttons on the appropriate side! It has served me well. I'm going on for 70 now, and love to wear it as a dressing gown!
I'm glad to know that there are others who are fascinated by macks! Keep your site going, Lorraine!
Cheers
Joseph
Dear Joseph
Thank you so much for your lovely letter, full of interest. I will put it up if I may. You seem to have a lot of information and memories of the Golden Age: if you could write some more that would be so nice!
Lorraine
Dear Lorraine
Thank you for your letter in which you asked me to write more on my memories
of the golden age of the 50s. Sorry I have been so long, but I have been a bit
busy recently.
I have always thought the simplest ladies' macks were the nicest, especially
those made of cotton or nylon/taffeta material, rubberised on the inside. From
a distance I often found it difficult to distinguish them from other raincoats,
except when part of the inside was showing. This often happened, for example,
when a girl was putting it on or simply carrying it over her arm. I remember
wondering in my early childhood why there were sometimes circular patches sewn
on the inside, or why there were very tiny buttons inside which had nothing
to fasten to! I generally liked green, red, and blue macks best, possibly because
they had the right "bouquet" (I could tell them apart blindfold!),
though other colours often caught my eye. For example in the middle 50's I have
vivid memories of a really bonny lass in a pale blue satin mack arriving for
a dance. She was closely escorted! I had never seen a satin mack before and
she looked stunning! She would have had to take care not to get it dirty. Another
vivid memory was of a girl of my own age wearing a tightly belted mack with
a shiny black rubber proofing on the outside. It was on a warm summer's day
and she was leaning back contentedly in the sun against the wall of a bank in
the town centre. Her golden hair cascaded over her shiny black shoulders, she
looked a picture! But wouldn't she get too hot?
In the early 50s I was still at school. I lived in a coastal town in Lancashire.
The local girls' high school had a green uniform. Many of the girls had a green
mack to match their uniform, including the first girl I regularly went out with.
She often wore her mack on dates. After we had finally left school, I noticed
she had stopped wearing her nice green mack. I ventured to ask why. She replied
that it was only an old one anyway, and since she had left school she had dumped
it. She later was to dump me!
I remember once in London in the early 50s, crossing a sloping grassy area in
Richmond not far away from the Star and Garter home. It could have been on a
bank holiday, for simply loads of people were out there sitting and lying in
the sun. I've never seen anything quite like it before or since, except on a
beach. Some were sitting on travelling rugs with their thermos flasks and sandwiches,
but many were using their macks. In two or three cases macks were being used
as oversheets!
In the later 50s I was a student in Manchester. Unlike today, there were many
shops which sold rubber raincoats, just off the peg. I remember there were 2
shops in close proximity on Market Street alone which sold macks exclusively,
and they both thrived in the Golden Age. One was "The Lancashire &
Cheshire Rubber Company" (which didn't sound like a raincoat shop). The
other may have been "Stone-Dri" or Danimac". Danimac diversified
later into selling other types of raincoat. Macks were also sold in several
department stores, and in some ladies' clothes shops.
One October in the later 50s three women students came to live in digs near
me, and we all caught the same the bus in the morning for our 9-30 lectures.
Oh, joy! One had a nice taffeta green mack, the sort that I really like. The
second had a blue mack which was more substantial but less interesting, and
I never got to find out the details. The third wore a red Danimac mack which
at a distance looked like an ordinary long suede coat, but it crackled when
she walked and had the right bouquet! I also liked the way she did her hair,
and she had a really lovely profile. Years later she agreed to be my wife!
Well, alas, she no longer has her red mack (she dumped it once when we moved
house, saying it was out of fashion) and she has cut her hair (she says long
hair doesn't suit her any more). Although she has never been able to share my
fascination for macks, she has many other assets which I treasure, and after
45 years or so we are still together. And she still looks lovely!
Joseph
Dear Joseph
Your notes and stories here are full of interest, thank you - I hope to add the factual material to the Rainwear Chronicle.
Best wishes
Lorraine
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